The game of Life: (A Sacrifice Bunt)

Poets, novelists and Playwrights have been writing for the last century about a great muse. This inspiration is the game of baseball.

It is a resource for writers that can never be drained. It always keeps giving and giving and never seems to empty. The reason it can never run out is because baseball continues to remind us how life is, was and will continue to be.

I am going to attempt to shed a little light on the intricate plays of baseball and somehow relate them to life.

We will start with the sacrifice bunt. A play that baseball people have been arguing over its importance for the last hundred years.

Some baseball men will state that the bunt is a pointless play which is giving the other team an out and thus making it easier to get through the inning and get closer to recording the 27th out.

Others argue that a sacrifice bunt is an essential play which is a valuable offensive weapon. It makes the defensive team field the ball and deliver the ball to first in time and thus gives the offensive team a runner in scoring position.

But what does a sacrifice bunt really say in a metaphorical sense?

It means exactly what it says. It means that you are sacrificing yourself for your team. You are giving up your at bat so someone can drive them in. You are giving up your at bat to allow someone else to come home.

For those of you who have spent time in church, specifically a catholic church have probably genuflected which in simple terms means to bend one knee to the ground before your God. Watch closely how professionals sacrifice bunt and you will see players resembling a genuflection in their mechanic.

They are kneeling before the gods of baseball and helping their team.

The key to a proper sacrifice bunt is to get low and basically catch the ball with your bat and see it down before you run. By placing one knee on the ground and sacrificing you are giving yourself up for the betterment of another.

Whether the sacrifice bunt works and the hitter behind you drives in the runner is of no consequence in this scenario. The point is that you gave yourself up. You sacrificed your at-bat or your moment of glory for the possibility for someone else to become a hero

There is no intention of personal glory like a real sacrifice.

I hope this makes sense to ballplayers out there and relish the sacrifice bunt when your coach delivers the sign to you.